Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-16
Guilty. eagle
A BEAUTIFUL EAR.
6INGULAR CASE OF A PATHETIC
OUTGROWTH OF SENSlBlLITY.

Story Told to an Expert in Nervous
Affections 4 Particularly IIideous
Pair of Ears-A Sort OF Holy Grail
Quest.
heard of a pathetic outgro'vth OF nervous
sensibility the other day. a professional
man who lives at the West End, and who is
not only painfully self-conscious man, but
also one given to observing things about him
with great nlinuteness, has become SO acutely
susceptible to the essential ugliness Of the
human ear that he scarcely secs anything else
in the people about him than their ears. To
q physician, an expert in nervous affections,
whom lie was wise enough to consult, this
gentleman told his story somewhat after this
fashion: 1t was as many as five or six years
ago that the sight OF n particularly hideous
pair of ears, one OF which had been slit in a
ghastly manner in some accident or fight, set
Eie to rejecting on the extraordinary caprice
OF Providence in setting, IN tho most conspic-
uous place upon the head Of its curious
earthly achievement, such utterly absurd end
ursight,y contTivances as human ears. The
ear is useful, no doubt; but might not an in
finite ingenuity and an omnipotent choice
have provided man with an auditory appli-
ance less hideous than this cOnvoluted ex-
creScence?
STUDYING IT UP.
~ was led to ask myself, is there any such
thing as beautiful human car! l looked up
all the passages in polite literature III which
the human ear IS referred TO, and found not
only that such passages are extremely few,
but that the beauty referred to-i;u the COM
parisons, of delicate, pink edged feminine TO
the translucent interiors of sea shells, and the
like are simply comparative. no poet ever
thought, SO far as ] could find, Of finding alb
solute beauty II the car 1t IS only as q
pendent or an accompaniment, less EldcOus
than usual, to the beautiful head end face Of
q lovely woman, that tho actual ear Itself, as
apart from the faculty OF hearing, over be-
comes tolerable i'll poetry. In at the ear Is
thing 10 be dissembled; no realist vas ever
so unblushiDg as faithfully to pa.ntth ear as
it is. Photography reveals ii in al its uGli-
ness; but poetry bears the same relation to
art that the dissection Of the body does 10 the
love OF humanity.
The running OF these through ny mind
led no TO start a sort OF Holy Grail quest for
a reilly beautiful human car, and at the
same tjne / found myself searching out,
whenever | got upon a street car Or railway
train, and as | walked Gown the crowded
Streets. al the usl.cst e2Is, with the in
stinctiye oagerneSs % q colnoiSseur. The ear
habit grew upon me. / became a sort of col
lector of ears. When came into a railway
train filled with people, my eye ran down the
long rows Of cars next the aisle to sea whether
there was q vacancy in the devious lines
that might fill with my own. That row
of ears, to a man who had fallen into tho
habit of observing nothing else but the ears,
was horribly suggestive of a sea serpent!
NOTHING But EARS, EARS, EARS.
81 say that all this began five or six years
ago; but, of course, my mania-for such it
has become-did not ali at once take TINS seri-
Gus form. It has been gradual growth.
Now find it threatening, perhaps not my
mental balance, for l feel capable of main
tanning that, but my peace of mind certainly,
and ali my old sensibiiity to the beauty Of the
human form and the loneliness OF life about
me- lily old keen sense Of the beautiful |
lament, as q fallen angel might lament the
Joys of paradise. For me there is nothing i'll
the world hut ears, cars ears. The pleasure
that ] sometimes feel in meeting a specimen
less hideouS than the rest does not repay me
for tho o.re.;sc which the uniform dead level
of ilI-silapcn growth inticts upon Inc; and l
am resolved, Il medical science can do any
thing for strange a malady, TO take the
utmost possible advantage of 1t. If ii could
SO influence my organs of sight as TO make ii
impossible for me ever again to see the hui
man ear at all, ii would be . contamination
devoutly 10 be wished"
| understand that tie eminent physician
consulted in this case was completely nom
plussed for a time, but has at last succeeded
in so influencing the sufferers thoughts and
attention by diverting them to other chan
nels that lac is already somewhat less poign-
anily conscious of the ears he sees; that tho
doctor IS in fact, fighting the Old mania with
q now one, and intends 10 check the new be-
fore 1t, in Its turn, shall take possession of the
patient, us did the ether. The case, have
no doubt, will suggest to more than one
reader something of u similar sort in his
knowledge or experience. IL is only one of
many morbid outgroWthS of the keen con-
sciouSneSS, the r0wnesS Of scaSibi!ity that
overwork and intense mental strain have
superi1duced.- Boston Post.